Presenting Live And In Person: The World’s Best Places To Live Or Retire Overseas

In these dispatches, we give a lot of virtual ink to Latin America. That’s because it’s nearby to North America (where most of our readers currently reside) and because it can be cheap and sunny (two things most would-be expats and retirees abroad actively seek).

But there’s a world beyond these Americas that can also offer good weather and a low cost of living… plus, in some cases, some things you won’t find here.

Southeast Asia boasts a number of the most cost-friendly places anywhere to call home right now. Pockets of Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, for example, can be absurdly cheap. Living on this side of the planet, you’d also have access to some of the world’s most beautiful beaches.

Your life would be full of the exotic, the unexpected, and the adventurous. That is to say, the culture shock would be significant. For some, this reality is thrilling and invigorating… for others, intimidating, even terrifying.

Historically, in Asia, you’ve had an added challenge related to residency. It’s been tough in this region until recently to arrange to stay on indefinitely (legally) as a foreigner. Border runs and residency workarounds were common.

This is less true all the time, though. Our Asia Correspondents Wendy and David Justice tell us that some countries in South Asia now offer very competitive residency programs.

Of course, you can avoid the residency question in Asia… and anywhere… by creating a retire-overseas plan for yourself that allows you to enjoy the benefits of Asia (super cheap and super exotic) part-time. Don’t worry about trying to organize permanent residency. Stay as long as you can as a tourist and then move on.

How about three months in Chiang Mai, where your retirement budget would stretch far indeed, followed by a few months in the south of France, say, or Tuscany?

Which brings us to Europe. Many would-be retirees abroad dismiss Europe as too expensive, but this isn’t necessarily the case, especially with today’s surging Greenback. Sure, a retiree on a modest budget probably can’t afford Paris or Florence, but have you considered southwestern France, where life is quintessentially French but, as well, surprisingly affordable, or Pisa, about an hour from Michelangelo’s hometown but dramatically less costly?

One of the big advantages of Europe, compared with other regional retire-overseas options, is the opportunity it affords for what I think of as “high culture.” Every country in the world has local culture, but not everywhere has world-class museums, opera, and live theater, for example. If you’re interested in a life that includes what are conventionally recognized as cultural offerings of the high-brow variety, you should be looking to the Continent.

Which is not to say it’s impossible to enjoy an Old World Continental lifestyle anywhere else. Some cities in South America offer a fair imitation—Buenos Aires, for example, and Medellín, Colombia, to name two. Both are cities of open-air cafes, classic-style museums and theaters, art galleries, and antique shops.

And both, you’ll note, are in South America, not Central America. The differences between these two regions, even between Panama and Colombia, next-door neighbors, can be striking. I’m speaking generally and could name exceptions to every point, but, again, generally speaking, South America offers what I’d call more polished options, a good place to look if what you want is culture on the cheap.

Central America, by contrast, is, everywhere, rough around the edges. These are small, developing countries with nonexistent budgets for things like art museums.

Making for a way of life that is, for some, charming. Romantics (like me) in Central America focus on the potential for what could be rather than the reality of what sometimes is.

Others find Central America frustrating, disappointing, even appalling. On the other hand, this sun-blessed region can be but a quick plane hop away and a user-friendly place to establish foreign residency.

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.